Veenendaal

A small number of Jews settled in Veenendaal during the middle
of the 17th century. At first, the Jews of Veenendaal prayed
together in the house of one of their numbers, the leaseholder of
the local lending bank.

By the first half of the 18th century, the Jewish
population of Veenendaal had risen to the point that an organized
Jewish community could be formed. The newly-founded community soon
opened a small synagogue, located outside the village. In 1761, the
Jews of Veenendaal obtained the right to bury their dead at the
Jewish cemetery at Wageningen. A feud between two families led to a
split in the Veenendaal community that was resolved in 1793 through
the intervention of the town council of Rhenen. A few years later,
the community at Veenendaal hired a rabbi of its own.

With the reapportionment of Jewish communities in the Netherlands
in 1821, the community at Veenendaal was recognized as a
Ringsynagoge or regional community under the aegis of the Jewish
community at Amersfoort. The Jewish population
at Veenendaal grew throughout the early- and mid-19th-century and
reached its peak during the late 1860s. The size of the community
declined as the century progressed, in part to do a large number of
mixed marriages.

In 1852, the Veenendaal community built a new synagogue located on
the Verlaat. The synagogue remained in use until the Second World
War. The community established a cemetery of its own on the
Parallelweg in 1900. At the outset of the 20th century, the
community was governed by a board consisting of three members. The
Veenendaal community's only voluntary organization, a women's
society, was established in 1901. At the time, Jewish children of
Veenendaal received their religious education from a teacher based
in Amersfoort. The textile factory Veenendaalse Stoom
Weverij, owned by the Jewish Bottenheim family, was an
important force in the economic development of Veenendaal during
the period. Jews were also active in local government.

During the World War II German occupation of the Netherlands, the
Jews of Veenendaal suffered the same lot as Jews throughout the
Netherlands. The majority of the Jews of Veenendaal were deported
and murdered although a few local Jews did manage to survive the
war in hiding. Approximately 100 other Jews, mostly from Amsterdam,
also found hiding places in the surroundings of Veenendaal. During
the war, the Germans vandalized the Veenendaal synagogue and stole
or destroyed most of its Torah scrolls and ceremonial objects;
however, three Torah scrolls that had been taken to Amsterdam and
hidden were recovered after the war.

The Jewish community at Veenendaal was officially disbanded in 1951
and the locale placed within the boundaries of the Jewish community
at Utrecht.
The synagogue was sold soon after the war and was razed in 1967.
The Jewish cemetery currently is maintained by the local
authorities. The house for the ritual preparation of the dead at
the cemetery was restored in 1990. A plaque unveiled in 1988 at the
Keermuur near the Duivenwal commemorates the former Jewish
community at Veenendaal.